New UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira firmly believes that styles determine outcomes in combat sports.
Alex Pereira has beaten Israel Adesanya three times—twice in kickboxing and once in mixed martial arts at UFC 281.
Pereira shared his opinions on why it could be time for Adesanya to realize that his style does not work well against Pereira’s and give up on the rematch.
Pereira revealed a personal experience in an interview with Super Lutas to further emphasize his stance.
During the interview, Pereira disclosed that he had lost three amateur kickboxing matches against the same opponent. He blamed his losses on the fact that his style didn’t mesh well with his.
Pereira feels that despite the fact that the unidentified opponent is ostensibly already retired, he would still lose to that man again if they competed today. He believes that Adesanya might benefit from adopting this perspective before attempting another rematch.
Pereira said,
“I’m going to say something that I’ve never told anyone. I have 28 fights in amateur. I won 25 of them by knockout. I lost three fights. Three times to the same guy. In amateur, three fights. I don’t understand why. But now I do. The styles don’t match.”
“The guy has stopped fighting. If I fought him again today, I think I’d lose again. Even though he’s done fighting, if I fought him, I would lose. If I fought him 10 times, I’ll lose. Adesanya needs to get that, the same way Whittaker did. He just doesn’t accept it.”
When Alex Pereira (7-1) TKO’d Adesanya at UFC 281 earlier this month, he became the new middleweight champion of the UFC.
Pereira now has a four win streak in the UFC with victories over Adesanya, Sean Strickland, Bruno Silva, and Andreas Michailidis. The 35-year-lone old’s MMA defeat still stands, coming by submission against Quemuel Ottoni in October 2015 but he’s been in UFC just over a year so there’s quite a bit of ground to cover.